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We spent 3 days in Hong Kong. It is a crazy busy city with a beautiful harbor. We met with a new, very professional customer and had dinner with them at the Kowloon Cricket Club. Most people speak very good English here, but not all. It is very much a shopping city, which is okay for about an hour, then I am done. We were able to go to the top of Victoria Peak and it was beautiful! There is a harbor light show every night at 8 pm which was amazing! Off to Singapore ahead of the typhoon...
Today was spent sightseeing and meeting with our customer again. First we saw the Terracotta Warriors and Horses; they are an amazing discovery found in 1974 by a farmer. They were created around 210 B.C. Pictures to come later. We also visited a factory where they build replicas from a few inches tall to taller than me!
Then we went to the Big Goose Pagoda; a Buddhist temple with monks in residence. It is very beautiful. I look forward to researching Buddhism and the other religions of China, including Confucianism and Taoism. China is officially an atheist country, but they have several religions in different regions.
Finally we feasted on Peking Duck with our customer. It is nothing like any duck I have had in the US. The sauce is delicious! Any one know how to make it?
The driving here is insane!!!!! Yes, I know that is a lot of !, but you have to see it to believe it. Cars, buses, scooters with up to 3 people on them, 3 wheel motorbikes with deliveries stacked 6 feet in the air, 1000's of taxis and tons of pedestrians all merging and turning when and where ever they want to. And traffic is usually bumper to bumper, literally. There were buses about an inch from our van today.
The people we meet that speak English are warm and friendly. Parents on the street encourage their children to talk to us to practice. Most tourists in Xi'an are Asian and we have seen few Americans here. People who speak English are likely to strike up a conversation with you.
Oh, and it kind of smells here...
Today was spent flying to Xi'an China and meeting with a customer. The meeting went well. They took us for traditional noodle lunch, very yummy. Then we went to the famous Bell Tower and Drum Tower in old city Xi'an, and had traditional Chinese dumplings for dinner. They were good, but very different.
The technology in the hotels we stay in are amazing, but other things are still very traditional. The lunch restaurant did not have traditional toilets, but squat toilets. Look them up if you are interested, challenging to say the least. Our tour guide said the two things to make sure you have in China are cash and tisue because the is rarely any in the restrooms.
Today we met with a new customer and it went very well. They took us to lunch at a traditional Korean restaurant in a 100 year old house. We had our own small room, had to take off our shoes and sat on the floor. We had a lot of very good food, but I don't know what most of it was (lots of fish and rice.) On the way back to the airport we went by a body of water with a lot of barbed/razor wire fence. Larry asked what it was and our customer said we were close to the North Korean border (the DMZ).
There seems to be less English here than in Beijing. There is construction everywhere with buildings on islands. Very pretty!
Now back to Beijing and in China for a few days. Not sure if I can post there, but I will try.
Spent the morning in Tiananmen Square and wandering some side streets in Beijing. It is an impressive and massive square, according to Wiki it is the second largest aware in the world. Photos to be posted later, sorry. People wait for up to 3 hours in a line outside in the blazing heat to see the mausoleum of Mao Zedong, It is where police killed protesters in 1989.
Then we flew to Seoul and were picked up by our customer for a meeting in the morning.
More tomorrow, but Likely nothing exciting. Hope all is well I'm the USA. Miss you all!
That was one seriously long day. We left Traverse City at 6:35 Sunday morning and, after 2 delays, arrived in Beijing at 7pm Monday night. By the way, it is exactly 12 hours different from EST, so it is now 11:07 pm here and 11:07 am in Michigan. Slept about 4 hours on the 12 hour flight from San Francisco to Beijing.
We took a short walk from our hotel and found a night market that sells almost all of there food on sticks. We did not eat there! One guy had a small snake on a stick, so I can only imagine what the rest of the food was. Another, not quite so exhausted time, perhaps. Tomorrow we fly to Seoul for the night to visit our first customer. Night/morning everyone!
That was one seriously long day. We left Traverse City at 6:35 Sunday morning and, after 2 delays, arrived in Beijing at 7pm Monday night. By the way, it is exactly 12 hours different from EST, so it is now 11:07 pm here and 11:07 am in Michigan. Slept about 4 hours on the 12 hour flight from San Francisco to Beijing.
We took a short walk from our hotel and found a night market that sells almost all of there food on sticks. We did not eat there! One guy had a small snake on a stick, so I can only imagine what the rest of the food was. Another, not quite so exhausted time, perhaps. Tomorrow we fly to Seoul for the night to visit our first customer. Night/morning everyone!
That was one seriously long day. We left Traverse City at 6:35 Sunday morning and, after 2 delays, arrived in Beijing at 7pm Monday night. By the way, it is exactly 12 hours different from EST, so it is now 11:07 pm here and 11:07 am in Michigan. Slept about 4 hours on the 12 hour flight from San Francisco to Beijing.
We took a short walk from our hotel and found a night market that sells almost all of there food on sticks. We did not eat there! One guy had a small snake on a stick, so I can only imagine what the rest of the food was. Another, not quite so exhausted time, perhaps. Tomorrow we fly to Seoul for the night to visit our first customer. Night/morning everyone!
That was one seriously long day. We left Traverse City at 6:35 Sunday morning and, after 2 delays, arrived in Beijing at 7pm Monday night. By the way, it is exactly 12 hours different from EST, so it is now 11:07 pm here and 11:07 am in Michigan. Slept about 4 hours on the 12 hour flight from San Francisco to Beijing.
We took a short walk from our hotel and found a night market that sells almost all of there food on sticks. We did not eat there! One guy had a small snake on a stick, so I can only imagine what the rest of the food was. Another, not quite so exhausted time, perhaps. Tomorrow we fly to Seoul for the night to visit our first customer. Night/morning everyone!
